Real Man

Chapter 21

Yoo-hyun swung the golf club a few more times, as if it was natural and obvious.

The ball flew with precise angles, like it was shot from a machine, attracting the attention of the people around him.

That should be enough.

Yoo-hyun handed over the golf club with a very polite smile.

“Chief Choi, here is your golf club. It’s really nice.”

“Wow… You’re really amazing.”

“It’s thanks to the golf club. It’s light, has a low center of gravity, and is designed to reduce air resistance. The impact is so powerful that the ball feels refreshing. I think it can go 50 yards farther than usual, don’t you?”

“That much…”

“Yes. You definitely made a good investment. You have a good eye.”

Yoo-hyun added some technical terms to his compliment, making Chief Choi’s mouth curl up.

He glanced at Yoo-hyun with curiosity.

He had many questions about how a new employee could be so good.

It was not human to not be curious.

He looked confused in his head.

He might have thought that Yoo-hyun had some connection to the company from his previous senior story. 

Or he might have thought that Yoo-hyun had received early golf training and had professional skills.

It didn’t matter much what Chief Choi thought.

What mattered was that he recognized Yoo-hyun as a special being, not just a new employee.

“Hmm. But why do I feel like this good club doesn’t suit me?”

That’s why he could ask such a question.

Yoo-hyun tilted his head as if he was puzzled, and asked.

“You looked good when I saw your posture earlier. Why don’t you try the driver once? Maybe it doesn’t match your style.”

“Oh, style.”

Honestly, no.

It was a problem caused by lack of skill, not style or anything else.

But people always want to blame their mistakes on external factors.

As Yoo-hyun intended, Chief Choi nodded as if he understood something.

“Yes. The performance of the club itself is important, but it also has to fit your body type. Golf is tricky… There are ways to make it work even if it doesn’t match your style.”

“Is there such a thing?”

Yoo-hyun had already figured out his habits.

He hadn’t seen him swing the driver properly, but he didn’t need to see it to know what the problem was.

“Let’s try it. I’ve helped someone with a similar case before.”

“Oh, really?”

Chief Choi’s eyes sparkled so quickly that it was hard to believe. 

He seemed interested and eager.

It was understandable.

Everyone has a desire to jump to the next level.

Especially in sports like golf, where comparison is inevitable.

It’s a sport that doesn’t improve easily even with a lot of practice, so you have to spend time and push yourself hard.

In such a situation, what if a coach who can fix your problems appeared in front of you?

What if that person was a new employee from the same business unit?

And what if his level was professional?

How would you react?

It was a question with an obvious answer.

Chief Choi had already lowered his guard and accepted Yoo-hyun inside.

Yoo-hyun moved forward to close the distance with him who entered his boundary.

“Chief Choi, can you move your right thumb a little more outside?”

“Like this?”

“Yes. Wait a minute. Spread your left leg a little more, and move back a little more. Tuck in your waist slightly, and your head… like this. Yes, good. Can you try backswing once?”

“It feels awkward.”

“Yes. It’s okay. Good. Go ahead with confidence.”

Chief Choi couldn’t hide his doubt at Yoo-hyun’s advice.

It was a different approach from the coaching he had received so far.

He didn’t touch his backswing and downswing posture much, only adjusting his basic stance.

And it was different from his usual stance, so it felt like he was wearing clothes that didn’t fit him.

‘It doesn’t seem to work.’

Chief Choi decided to try swinging once anyway.

Bang!

“Wow!”

Chief Choi couldn’t help but widen his eyes as he watched the ball fly away.

It went much lower than usual, but straight without any slice that he always had.

He just changed his stance a little bit.

He even had an absurd thought.

Yoo-hyun corrected Chief Choi’s basic stance again as he tried to swing again.

“Chief Choi. This is…”

“Like this?”

“Yes.”

Again, the ball flew straight and far, and Chief Choi smiled brightly on his lips.

“How did you do that?”

“I only fixed the balance a little bit. Your other postures were so good that your body quickly adapted.”

“Wow, really? No other coach taught me this kind of thing.”

“Maybe it’s because you’re skilled. I have a lot of shortcomings, so I tend to look at the basics.”

“Not at all. How can you not know your own skills with your golf experience? Hahaha. Thank you very much.”

Of course, his other postures had many problems too.

But it was hard to change the habits that he had ingrained in his body in a short period of time.

He thought that it would be enough to see the effects if he fixed the balance that was collapsed from the beginning, and made some minor adjustments to the basic posture.

What he wanted here was to get along with Chief Choi Kang-won, not to improve his perfect skills.

It was enough if he felt a meaningful change of just 5 percent.

It seemed that it worked better than he expected.

He caught the bad habits with his keen observation, and the easy and simple way to improve them was enough to make Chief Choi Kang-won excited.

Yoo-hyun also gave him appropriate encouragement from time to time.

“Wow, you’re amazing. The way you turn your waist is superb.”

“It’s all thanks to you. Hahaha.”

“It’s something that you already knew, sir.”

“Knowing and not fixing is the problem. Thank you.”

It wasn’t just words of gratitude.

He could tell by listening to his voice, which became much softer and warmer.

By now, his favorability had reached the target level.

It was time to make a move.

Yoo-hyun checked the time and said,

“Sir, I’ll go have lunch now. It was so much fun today.”

“Huh? You haven’t had lunch yet? It’s already past lunchtime…”

“Oh, is it?”

He pretended to be surprised and rolled his eyes.

He didn’t know what to do.

He was a new employee, so he couldn’t know this kind of thing.

He was sure that he would think so.

Sure enough.

The expected words came out.

“Oh no, you couldn’t eat because of me. What should I do?”

“It’s okay.”

Yoo-hyun kept a calm expression, but Chief Choi Kang-won looked sorry.

He must have thought that he was late because he was teaching him.

What he needed to think at this point was that he had to do something nice for the grateful and pitiful new employee.

He was a person who was about to be promoted to an executive position.

‘You should ask me to have dinner with you, hurry up.’

Yoo-hyun intended to create a situation where he could apologize.

To do that, he had to go outside, not in this stiff training center.

If it was a warm dinner atmosphere, he believed that he would accept his apology without any trouble.

He had given him enough hints for the right answer, but there was no reply, so he became anxious.

Moreover, Chief Choi Kang-won picked up his phone.

Was he going to ask the restaurant for something?

He was a person who made things difficult.

Yoo-hyun quickly opened his mouth.

“Sir, it’s okay. There are snacks every break time.”

“But still…”

What a frustrating person.

He had no choice but to feed him.

Yoo-hyun quickly adapted to the changed situation.

“Really, it’s okay. But are you coming back to the practice center in the evening?”

“Of course. What about you?”

“Yes. I want to do it with you if it’s okay.”

“Then of course it’s good. Oh, but… Then we’ll overlap with dinner time again. What should we do? There’s no seat if it’s not that time.”

He knew and asked on purpose.

There was only one answer at this point.

Yoo-hyun pretended to be disappointed and said,

“Is that so? I really want to do it… But I promised to have dinner with my colleague.”

Then Chief Choi Kang-won nodded after thinking for a while.

“Hmm… Then let’s do this. Let’s do it together in the evening, and go out for dinner. Of course, with your colleague too.”

He finally got him.

Going out for dinner wasn’t bad either.

Yoo-hyun hid his joy and asked cautiously.

He needed to make sure he stamped it firmly.

“Is it okay? I heard that new employees can’t go outside by regulation.”

“So what? I’m going with you. Don’t worry. I’ll talk to the person in charge.”

“Thank you!”

Yoo-hyun clenched his fist tightly.

“Hoo.”

He arrived just before the afternoon class started and wiped the sweat on his forehead.

He ran at full speed because he was later than he thought.

He walked into the classroom full of people and turned his head towards Team 1.

Kwon Se-jung, who met his eyes, bowed his head and greeted him.

Seeing his expression filled with joy, he felt like the fatigue from running was gone.

‘Good. You did well.’

He wondered if he had ever worked so hard to help someone.

He felt proud for no reason.

“I’ll have to tell you later. Huhu.”

Grin.

“What did you say?”

“No, nothing.”

Yoo-hyun shrugged his shoulders as he sat down, and Kang Chang-seok’s face twisted across from him.

He frowned and scanned Yoo-hyun, wondering what was wrong with him.

Regardless, Yoo-hyun took out a drink from the plastic bag he brought.

The team members exclaimed when they saw it.

“Wow, Yoo-hyun, you have great sense.”

“Thank you. I wanted to drink a cold can of coffee anyway.”

“You didn’t have to buy this.”

He would never have done this if he was the old Yoo-hyun.

Seeing the team members smiling brightly, he felt it was worth stopping by the cafeteria even though he was busy.

Kang Chang-seok also threw a word awkwardly.

“Hmm, next time, don’t be late and do well.”

“I will.”

Yoo-hyun calmly replied.

Kang Chang-seok still grumbled as he took the drink.

To Yoo-hyun’s eyes, he looked like a whining child, and he just found it amusing.

Of course, the other team members didn’t feel the same way.

Yoo-hyun felt a chill for a moment.

He didn’t know what kind of lunchtime the team members had spent together, but he sensed a subtle tension in the atmosphere from all directions.

Especially when Kang Chang-seok spoke, Oh Min-jae muttered to himself, and Choi Seul-gi, who was stuck between them, sighed constantly as if she had run out of patience.

The other team members were the same.

They had only met for four hours.

They were barely getting along, but they were already bickering and sinking Team 6 from the start.

It was a headache.

Yoo-hyun secretly massaged his head.

The afternoon lecture time finally began.

The products that made Hansung Group what it is today were displayed on the screen in front of the classroom.

From toothpaste, radio, black-and-white TV to the latest mobile phone.

It was not just showing the products.

It also included interviews with senior employees on how they launched the products in the market and sold them worldwide.

After the video ended, the senior instructor who gave a brief explanation mentioned the afternoon assignment.

“You will write a business plan for a product that will be responsible for Hansung’s future as a member of Hansung during the training period. This project will have a final presentation after 12 days, and there will be a special prize for the best team. This is also the assignment with the highest team score in this new employee training program.”

On the screen, there was a title ‘Innovative Product Proposal’ under which the method was written.

It was an assignment to come up with an idea and plan it yourself.

They had to write about the concept and excellence of the product they proposed, its business feasibility, marketing strategy, commercialization plan, goals and expected effects.

They couldn’t even imitate it roughly, because there were three preliminary presentations and they couldn’t rest if they didn’t pass the cutline.

In addition to this, there were big assignments that included night assignments such as Innovation Medley, Innovation Management Game, Innovation Accounting Game, Innovation Marching.

Considering the time, there was no room for ‘Innovative Product Proposal’.

If they included individual assignments as well, there would be plenty of new employees who couldn’t sleep for days.

Yoo-hyun had been through that too.

Then the senior instructor dropped a bombshell.

“The seed is important, right? So today we’re going to make a seed for the product we’re going to commercialize. There are examples on the printouts on your desk. You’ll write a draft like that and then do a preliminary presentation. Of course, the deadline is today.”

“Ah!”

As soon as he finished speaking, deep sighs burst out from here and there. 

The senior instructor smiled and continued his speech.

“I see you’re all thinking about night assignments. Don’t worry too much. You can rest as soon as you pass the cutline. We’ll do an evaluation after dinner time today. After dinner time, we’ll evaluate in order of teams who applied for presentation. You got it?”

It was nonsense.

Everyone had heard of the bad reputation of the Innovation Center.

There was no one who believed his sweet words that they could rest if they passed the cutline.